Employed by the ocean

Mobile Ear Project

Surfer’s Ear is not dangerous. But it is specific to the sport of surfing and it can be really annoying. This is why I started the Mobile Ear Project in March 2016.

Logo Mobile Ear Project

It is a project to keep surfers healthy and it is supported by Surfing Medicine International. The exciting part is the combination of mobile health and prevention. Within ten minutes I check your ears ask a few questions and show you the video of your ear. And I explain it to you. So unless your ears are blocked by ear wax I can tell you if you have Surfer’s Ear and how advanced it is right away, on the beach. You can find more information about Surfer’s Ear and the project here.

An evaluation of the first 25 surfers is written up in this post. It comes with a short review of current literature and is relevant for medically interested surfers or doctors. The scientific evaluation of all participants is still in process and will be published soon.

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Click here to find a post about what you can do once you know you have Surfer’s Ear. And here is a post about the operation. Only a small percentage of surfers with Surfer’s Ear that need to undergo surgery. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask me.

Other parts of the project are interviews with ENT surgeons all over the world about the procedure, information on specifically designed ear plugs and other ways to take care of your ears. Here is a post about Dr. Hetzler from Santa Cruz, the man who has performed the most Surfer’s Ear operations in the world. Or do you know anybody who has done more than 2000 exostosis operations? Please let me know! He founded the Surfing Oto-Rhinos, connecting ENT doctors from all over the world to improve the ear care of surfers. The first meeting was 2017 in Sagres, Protugal at the World Conference in Surfing medicine. The next meeting will be in Cornwall 2018 come join us there!